


The galaxy needs less—actually the galaxy doesn't need slavers at all.

by themoonowl



Series: A Real Hero [10]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Biotics (Mass Effect), Canon-Typical Violence, Colonist (Mass Effect), Crushes, Engineers, Gen, M/M, Mass Effect 1, War Hero (Mass Effect), drones, some diffusing bomb cliches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 18:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21433117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themoonowl/pseuds/themoonowl
Summary: What was supposed to be a normal probe-armed-with-nuke disposal doesn't go as planned.Basically the events during UNC: Espionage Probe, but with added moments and tech.
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko & Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard, Male Shepard & Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
Series: A Real Hero [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1429021
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	The galaxy needs less—actually the galaxy doesn't need slavers at all.

_Elanos Haliat._ Samed had a name now.

The comm link shut off and a display started to blink. Fifteen. Fourteen. _ Shit. _ Luckily he'd brought two other tech experts with him on this mission.

“Alenko, take the right. Tali, left. I’ll take center.”

_ Ten. _

Samed jumped to position and scanned. A circuit-board of blue, green and red lines stood in front of him.

_ Nine. _

Alliance always used blue for—or was it green?

_ Eight. _

“Was it green or blue?” Samed asked.

“Blue!” Alenko replied.

_ Seven. _

Samed fried a part of the blue circuit and his hardpoint was disabled. Tali stood up not shortly after, her hardpoint dead as well.

_ Six. _

“Can’t get this to work, Commander!”

Shit. Samed lunged and fell on his knees next to Kaidan, the same circuit-board in front of him.

_ Five. _

He fried the blue line. Bomb was disabled.

Samed got up and exhaled, then his eyes met Alenko’s eyes, amber full of guilt in the dimness of the mineshaft.

“My omni froze, Commander, sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Before Samed could answer, Tali replied, “Lieutenant Kaidan, you use a Logic Arrest omni-tool, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“The Logic Arrest tends to overload when running three or more processes.”

“It does? Huh. Hasn’t happened to me before.”

“Alright you two. We’ll discuss omni-tool manufacturers later. For now, we need to find a way out of here. And Lieutenant.” Samed met Alenko’s eyes again. “Delete your cache just in case.”

“Aye aye, sir,” Alenko replied and flicked his fingers, making his omni disappear then reappear.

The three of them searched around the cavern, all while the name “Elanos Haliat” burned on Samed’s mind.

There was a tremble in his hands, a crushing weight on his chest, an itch in his brain. A tremble, an itch, boiling seething anger he hadn’t felt since—Mindoir. Then Elysium. Samed shook his head. That anger wasn’t useful. That anger burned. He didn’t want that fire again and yet.

There was no-one around. Kaidan and Tali were off somewhere around the caves, looking for some kind of exit. Samed leaned on one of the walls, hitting the back of his head as he did so. He closed his eyes.

Samed took deep breaths, as deep as he could with the heaviness in his chest. He needed to be calm. That's what did the job on Elysium in the end. That and the—what did they call themselves? Batarian… Independence… Something? It didn't matter. They were dead at the end. All because of this bastard who now needed to be sent back to—_ Breathe. _ His palms shook. _ Breathe. _

He’d never learned their names. Their leader—well no, they shunned leaders, they said. _ "Leaders made the Hegemony.” _ Leader or no, that one batarian was the first that approached him. Sounded young—all of them did—and he called himself Strength, obviously not his real name. Samed didn’t ask why. Not that he had the time to ask, with Hell happening all around him. Again.

It was oddly poetic, that name. It took strength to quench that anger the last time it burned. Whether that batarian—that man, Strength—knew it or not, he did a lot that day. Both for Elysium—and for him.

“Commander!” A gravelly yell reverberated all through the cave and brought a different kind of tightness to Samed's chest. He opened his eyes to Kaidan running towards him and pointing to the right. “Found the exit.”

Samed blinked. Then smiled, because he just couldn’t stop himself from smiling lately. “Good work.”

"You okay, Commander?" Inquisitive amber eyes shined amidst the dimness of the cavern.

Vyrnnus sprung to Samed's mind. Kaidan had learned the same lesson he did, albeit younger. And with less bloodshed. _ Level-headedness is about all we have left, Commander. _

"Yeah. Just thinking about Elysium."

Tali caught up to the two men and her light eyes suddenly made two full moons at the mention of the colony's name. "This man—those batarian rebels that helped you."

Samed slowly nodded and Kaidan asked, "What rebels? On Elysium? There wasn't any mention of that in your—in the files. Sir."

Samed raised his brows at the fact that Alenko had taken the time to look through his records. But that wasn't important now. "That's because they died. And this man is responsible for that whole attack."

"I see." Narrowed amber eyes under scrunched brows met his in unspoken understanding. “Well you can count on us, Commander. We’re behind you a hundred percent.” There was that flutter in Samed’s chest again, that same warmth that made his lips curve into a smile on their own.

But this wasn’t the time to think about that. They had a slaver to find.

* * *

The redness of the arid landscape welcomed them outside. Samed sprung up the map and saw that they were on the other side of the mountain they went in. The asshole could be anywhere.

It only took about seven steps to find him—there was some kind of camp down below the ridge. It had several people, one large krogan and the Mako. It would be a good idea to get to the Mako first and steal it back. But there was no way to go down without drawing attention and neither of them were the sort to provide good cover fire.

“Any ideas?” Samed asked and turned first to Kaidan, who shook his head no and then to Tali, whose eyes sparkled just a bit more now and already looked like two crescent moons turned to the side. “What do you got for me, Tali?”

“Commander!" Tali looked like she would bounce if she wasn’t crouching behind a boulder. “Our drones!”

Samed widened his eyes and then blinked. She was right. Their drones. Their drones that zapped and annoyed enemies. Their drones that _ still _ had the rocket firing programs installed, just in case. Samed grinned and sprung up his omni. “Can we deploy them all the way down?”

“We set the distance to fifteen meters, remember?”

“Right. Then we need to work fast and quiet.”

“Are you sure about this, Commander?” Alenko asked, the worry visible even from those blue goggles on his helmet.

Oh, he was sure. Maybe some of the adrenaline from disarming the nuke still held its grip on his brain, but he knew—this was going to be fun. He had a rocket planned with Elanos's name on it, too. The bastard didn't deserve anything less.

“Alenko, can you manage some kind of biotic barrier as we sneak past them?”

“That won’t be wise, sir. You see that krogan over there? If I fire up my biotics, it'd be like I fired a signal shot."

Samed turned his eyes on the battlefield again. Fifteen meters. They'd get close, deploy drones, run for the Mako and blow all of them to hell where they came from. But it was the running part that was tricky, especially without the Lieutenant's biotics. Unless.

"What if you put a barrier on us right as we deploy our drones? Can you do that or—"

Kaidan turned his gaze to the battlefield and held it there for some time. "It could work." It didn't sound so reassuring.

Then another thought sprung to Samed's head. "Lieutenant, can you _ handle _ the barrier? You had a migraine only a week ago. I don't want you exhausting yourself."

"I can handle it, Commander, I've done this before. Just say the word."

Okay. This was it.

Samed and Tali went first, the redness of the planet making the light from their omni-tools appear almost invisible. Two steps behind them trailed Kaidan.

Then the krogan turned and saw them. 

Gunshots hung in the air and deflected on their shields. It was time to start the whole thing, it seemed.

Tali deployed Chatika on the left side of the camp and Samed deployed Jab on the right. Then felt a warm buzz all over his suit and noticed that he glowed blue. Which meant—run.

There were fewer gunshots on them as they ran and the ones that hit were absorbed by the barrier. It wasn't long before they reached the Mako and Samed fried the vehicle's locks—it was easy. Old Terra mechanism, which must be how they managed to steal it.

But they'd fried the ignition. That'd take too long to fix, but at least they had the bulk of the Mako as cover.

Gunshots flew from both sides. Tali took the Mako's left side as cover and Samed the right. Kaidan still had his barrier on himself and found cover among crates and boulders, but he held his own quite nicely. The drones were doing their jobs too and they were now locked on one target—Elanos himself.

The plan was back in motion.

Only one problem: the krogan left standing stood unnaturally still as he faced Alenko, his feet scratching the ground like— 

He was about to charge.

But Elanos was pinned down, one flick of his and Tali's omnis and the bastard would be toast.

_ So would Kaidan. _

"Tali, the krogan!" Samed yelled.

They flicked their omnis in unison and two rockets hit the now-charging krogan, stopping him only a meter before he would have reached Kaidan.

An eerie silence washed over the whole scene as only one man was left standing—Elanos. Samed glanced at him and then Kaidan, who’d only just started slowly lowering his arms from his face. Then back to Elanos.

The bastard returned his gaze just before he started running.

Samed aimed his gun, but Elanos stood still and glowing blue in the running stance he’d assumed. Samed glanced over to Kaidan again, who glowed blue as well, one arm raised towards the running coward. Kaidan turned to Samed and nodded.

Samed lowered his gun and walked to where Elanos stood. He met his eyes through his helmet and saw—and saw nothing. No hardened evil gaze, no spite, no remorse.

There was no tremble in Samed’s hands now, no crushing weight on his chest, no itch in his brain. Only sorrow, a deep sorrow that ached for the ones that had died because of this man—no, not a man. A slaver.

He put the gun on the bastard's head and pulled the trigger.

A clean death. It was perhaps more than what he deserved.

* * *

Ten minutes for the Normandy to come pick the group up. Kaidan was outside checking out the outer hull and Tali was busy fixing the damage done to the ignition as Samed laid on two of the passenger seats, his hands cradling the back of his head.

Samed’s muscles ached and his head felt heavy—just like when the attack on Mindoir was over, when the sorrow had started to set in. Just like when a victory was declared on Elysium, a bitter taste in his mouth, even if it was indeed a big victory.

He closed his eyes, lids trembling over them and exhaled a shiver in his breath.

He'd avenged them, those young batarian men. He should feel good and yet. And yet there was an emptiness, a void where the anger was, even if it only held its place inside him for just a moment.

No more.

Wherever those men were, they were now at peace.

* * *

"Commander? Shepard? Hey. Wake up. We're back on the Normandy."

Samed opened his eyes to a square face with wide full lips, a button nose and warm amber eyes looking over him. He smiled, because he just couldn’t stop himself from smiling lately.

But reality was quick to set in and he sat up. "Where? What?"

"We didn't want to wake you up, Shepard," Tali added.

"Sorry.” Samed put a hand on his forehead. “This was—"

A gravelly "Hey. It’s okay," cut him off and there was that look of understanding again, along with a gentle tap and a squeeze of his shoulder.

Something filled the void in his chest left by the anger that was. Something that sort of made it all feel better. Just a bit.

But the threat of Saren still remained, and the mission. _ And regs again, _a painful thought scurried through Samed’s mind. It wasn’t the time to think about any of that.


End file.
